San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, center, is congratulated by teammates Rich Aurilia, left, and Livan Hernandez, right, after hitting a grand slam off Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling in the fifth inning Thursday, July 26, 2001, at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. The home run was Bonds' 44th of the season and second of the game.(AP Photo/Paul Connors)

2001-07-27 04:00:00 PDT Phoenix -- Barry Bonds had three home runs in the past 28 games, Luis Gonzalez three in the last two nights. So 33,666 people braved 105-degree heat and nasty Phoenix traffic to reach Bank One Ballpark so they could watch their beloved Gonzo smack No. 42 and finally catch his prey.

To which the prey replied, "Hardy har har."

In one of his most clutch efforts this season, and clearly inspired by his mano-a-mano with Gonzalez even if he wouldn't admit it, Bonds hit a solo home run and an opposite-field grand slam in successive innings, both on the first pitch, against 14-game winner and Cy Young front-runner Curt Schilling.

Bonds' 43rd and 44th home runs of the season, the 537th and 538th of his career, broke a tie with Mickey Mantle for ninth place on the all-time list and more significantly propelled the Giants to an 11-3 victory against the first-place Diamondbacks.

The rout in the opener of a four-game series was as crucial as it was stunning, for the Giants let Arizona know they intend to be players in the National League West race. They now trail by 5 1/2 games.

"They're not under pressure. We're the ones under pressure," Bonds said. "If they win, we're closer to our grave. We've got to win to stay out of there. "

And Bonds has to start homering again if he wants to break Mark McGwire's single-season record of 70, something he again called "not realistic" even after his two-homer night.

"I had my opportunities," he said, "but I slumped off a little bit."

Nor does Bonds see himself in a great chase with Gonzalez, saying, "We're not having a home-run contest. He won that at the All-Star Game."

Bonds clearly sported a game face as he took the field for batting practice.

But he insisted the root cause was the prospect of facing pitchers such as Schilling, Brian Anderson and Randy Johnson in such a critical series, not the home-run folderol.

"It's a bigger possibility that he was focused on us winning. That's the biggest thing," manager Dusty Baker said. "It might have been a motivating factor, him being here and Gonzo coming within one home run of him, but the larger factor was, we needed this game."

The Giants' victory was as goofy as it was important. Besides Bonds' ninth career grand slam, his first since he victimized Jeff Juden in 1998, and a season-high five home runs overall, they witnessed what had to be Livan Hernandez's most bizarre game in the major leagues.

Besides getting a career-high three hits himself, including the single off Schilling that started the grand-slam rally in the fifth, Hernandez labored through 104 pitches by the fourth inning, yet that mountain of work cost him only three runs.

In the first two innings alone Hernandez threw 68 pitches and allowed five hits and three walks but allowed only one run. Both innings ended with bases- loaded flyballs. Hernandez didn't just flirt with trouble. He invited it to dinner and bought it a bottle of wine.

Even when the Diamondbacks scored their final two runs in the fourth, things could have been stickier. After they loaded the bases with nobody out, Hernandez got Gonzalez to pop up.

"That was the ballgame right there," Hernandez said. "Everybody knows Gonzalez is hot right now, and getting him out with the bases loaded, that's not too easy."

Hernandez (9-11) pitched six innings and outlasted Schilling, who came into this game 7-0 against the NL West this season, with two of those wins against the Giants.

Hernandez won his third consecutive decision on the strength of the two Bonds home runs, solos by Rich Aurilia and Pedro Feliz, and Jeff Kent's two- run home run in the ninth off Greg Swindell after the left-hander walked Bonds.

Aurilia and Bonds went back-to-back in the fourth to give the Giants a 2-1 lead. After the Diamondbacks retook the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the inning on a bases-loaded single by David Dellucci and a Matt Williams sacrifice fly following the Gonzalez pop-up, the Giants stormed ahead 6-3 with a rally straight out of "Alice in Wonderland."

First, Hernandez singled up the middle. Then, Marvin Benard walked after Schilling had him down 0-2. Then Aurilia legged out at bunt single up the third-base line.

Somewhere in Section 332, the Mad Hatter chuckled.

Bonds then ripped Schilling's first pitch the other way for the grand slam and his 52nd career multihomer game.

When someone reminded Bonds he hadn't hit a slam in three years, he quipped,

"Most of the time I get walked with the bases loaded. That's just an old Arizona saying," referring to the game in 1998 in which then-manager Buck Showalter had his pitcher do exactly that to force home a run with a two-run lead in the ninth.

When someone noted that Bonds passed a great player in Mantle, he said, "Yeah, but my sights are higher."

The rookie Feliz is a mere 533 home runs behind Bonds, but he did hit his second in as many games in the sixth. Andres Galarraga contributed his second RBI hit against a right-handed pitcher in as many days, a double off the center-field wall with Erik Sabel on the mound. Benito Santiago singled home a run as well.